Here, we demonstrate that stable conformations of graphene nanoribbons can be identified using pull and release experiments, when the stretching force applied to a single-layer graphene nanoribbon is suddenly removed. As it is follows from our numerical experiments performed by means of molecular dynamics simulations, in such experiments, favorable conditions for the creation of folded structur...

Stretching is often included as part of a warm-up procedure for basketball activity. However, the efficacy of stretching with respect to sport performance has come into question. We determined the effects of 4 different warm-up protocols followed by 20 minutes of basketball activity on flexibility and vertical jump height. Subjects participated in 6 weeks (2 times per week) of warm-up and baske...

Stretching before performance is a common practice among athletes in hopes of increasing performance and reducing the risk of injury. However, cumulative results indicate a negative impact of static stretching and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) on performance; thus, there is a need for evaluating other stretching strategies for effective warm-up. The purpose of this study was t...

Free energy landscapes provide information on the dynamics of proteins and nucleic acid folding. It has been demonstrated that such landscapes can be reconstructed from single molecule force measurement data using Jarzynski's equality, which requires only stretching data. However, when the process is reversible, the Crooks fluctuation theorem combines both stretch and relaxation force data for ...

The mechanical stability of force-bearing proteins is crucial for their functions. However, slow transition rates of complex protein domains have made it challenging to investigate their equilibrium force-dependent structural transitions. Using ultra stable magnetic tweezers, we report the first equilibrium single-molecule force manipulation study of the classic titin I27 immunoglobulin domain....

We show that the equilibrium unfolding transition of horse carbonmonoxy myoglobin monitored by the stretching vibration of the CO ligand, a local environmental probe, is very sharp and, thus, quite different from those measured by global conformational reporters. In addition, the denatured protein exhibits an A(0)-like CO band. We hypothesize that this sharp transition reports penetration of wa...

The 25-35 fragment of the amyloid β (Aβ) peptide is a naturally occurring proteolytic by-product of its larger parent molecule that retains the amyloid characteristics and toxicity of the full length parent molecule. Aggregation of this peptide occurs rapidly in aqueous solutions and thus characterization of its folding process is very difficult. In the present study, early stages of Aβ(25–35) ...

Laminar mixing of glycerin in a chaotic mixer is carried by means of the blob deformation method. The mixer was a cylindrical vessel with two rotational blades which move along two different circular paths with a stepwise motion protocol. The flow visualization was performed by marking of the free surface of the flow with a tracer. The effects of controlling parameters such as rotational speed ...

Nucleic acid hairpins provide a powerful model system for probing the formation of secondary structure. We report a systematic study of the kinetics and thermodynamics of the folding transition for individual DNA hairpins of varying stem length, loop length, and stem GC content. Folding was induced mechanically in a high-resolution optical trap using a unique force clamp arrangement with fast r...